Palin Had a Point. ... Plus More Twitter-like Substance.

Palin Had a Point. ... Plus More Twitter-like Substance.

Lehanism's Biggest Failure?
Here's a thought: What if Obama said, to the health care protesters and worried seniors
, "I understand your concerns"
instead of letting his press secretary and party allies sneer at them (for being "well-dressed"
or thugs or dupes who don't know "the facts,"
etc.)? Isn't that more the Obama Way, as opposed to the Lehanist "fight club"
way? Obama might even fire Orszag
order up a few changes in the proposed legislation to alleviate some of the seniors' worries. ... P.S.:
We can always control long term costs in the long term--i.e. later--just as Orszag's curve-bending schemes, even if they pass intact, could always be repealed by a new Congress and President. These are all things that will happen at least ten years from now! They aren't worth blowing universal health care over. ... P.P.S.:
Hillary Clinton's plan, if I recall, did not make the mistake of making a big deal of long-term medical cost control. Maybe if she were still in the Senate she'd be making that point. ...

Backfill:
Marc Ambinder may want some
of his
twitters back
one day. ... 10:32 P.M.

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Change in Blog Dress Code:
Effective immediately, readers are requested not to read kausfiles
in a suit. We are trying for a more artistic atmosphere
. This ban also applies to the fancier kind of pajamas--you know, the ones with the piping. Thank you for your cooperation. 10:16 P.M.

WaPo
: "[B]arely one-third of seniors support a health-care overhaul, several polls found." Why? They like Medicare as it is, they're scared of Obama's changes, and Obama has conspicuously failed to reassure them. ... But the Post'
s Ceci Connolly seems (at least at one point) to assume, Beltway-style, that seniors' fears must be due to the $563 billion in Medicare savings over the next decade, as opposed to Orszagist curve-bending after
that. ...

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P.S:
Connolly reports the White House is considering "reaching out to skeptical seniors" through a ''myth-busting' Web site." That'll do it! Game over! ... Even assuming a web site could have a big impact, "myth-busting" sites don't tamp down paranoia,in my experience. They stoke it. If an answer is only 85% satisfying, the other 15% suddenly seems very significant. Take Obama's recent attempt to reassure Karen Tumulty on the "rationing" question:

[T]his is my point, I think that there's this perception that you either have rationing that is very stringent and sort of makes you wait for months before you can get your cancer treated or you can never get your knee replaced, right, all the horror stories you hear from the British model or the Canadian system that people who are opposed to reform always trot out. Or, alternatively, you just have this bloated system in which we don't even try to make it rational, we just sort of live with what we have. And what I'm trying to suggest is, is that there's this huge space in between where we could make the system much more efficient, much more cost-effective, make people much healthier, and still not have to resort to some of the rationing that people are fearful of. ..

So we don't go all the way to Britain. We go halfway to Britain! ... Obama can't bring himself to say we won't ration
. But we won't resort to "some" of the rationing. ... Reassuring! ... 1:26 A.M.

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For @ jayrosen_nyu
: What was so bad about the L.A. Times'
"wikitorial"? How was it "arrogant"?
My impression is they shut it down because they got hacked
, not because it wasn't a potentially interesting experiment. ... Update:
Rosen's response.
... Who's arrogant again? ...